Hi Plantguy,
I don't consider myself anywhere near being an experienced or knowledgeable terrestrial orchid grower. However, I've been growing them for over 10 years, at a guess I grow about 200 species/hybrids/forms and I am in regular contact with people who can grow terrestrials orchids that would die if you looked at a photo of it
, so take my comments however you see fit.
Just to clarify about Australian orchid availability, it's not as dire as you may think. Yes, Australian orchids growing on public land are protected and there is a lot of red tape involved to get permits to collect plants or seed from these orchids compared to parts of Asia and South America. While illegal collection does unfortunately occur in Australia, there are legitimate ways for these plants to enter cultivation and legally collected/propagated plants are being grown by a reasonably large number of people in Australia. Plants and seed from private land are not subject to the same collection restrictions that plants on public land are. Also plants collected under permit for rescue digs, conservation programs and research also make their way into cultivation.
The export issue is a problem for all orchids exported from Australia not just terrestrials. The inspection and certificate fees needed to meet phytosanitary and CITES requirements are expensive in Australia and there is also a lot of paperwork involved if you are only occasionally sending plants overseas. Private growers and small nurseries usually can't justify the effort to send plants overseas, especially given that our import restrictions make trading plants very difficult. Those nurseries that are willing to export usually require large minimum orders to make the order worth the effort involved. On top of that most Australian nurseries don't sell terrestrials so you are limited in where you can buy them from.
Seed of CITES Appendix II species is relatively free from international export paperwork and is probably the best way to get hold of Australian terrestrials internationally. Of course you need to be able to flask or know someone else who can, which might be a problem. IME, Thelymitra are amongst the easier terrestrials to deflask and I've had some species flower within about 2-3 years of germination. The Australia Orchid Foundation's seed bank is probably the best source of a wide variety of species as the seed bank manager has access to seed that is not on their published list. The Terrorchid seed bank also lists blue Thely seed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by plantguy
The one catch for me is temperature. Most of the orchids from this region are cool growing.
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Cool growing is not exactly accurate. Most come from temperate to mediterranean climates so they prefer cool winters and warm summers. Keeping them constantly cool may cause you problems. I've noticed that when we've had cooler than average summers the growth pattern of my plants is thrown out of whack. To give you an idea of the temperature ranges where they grow naturally, these are the temperature stats for
Perth,
Adelaide,
Melbourne,
Hobart and
Sydney. I don't know the climate in Salt Lake City from Timbuktu but looking at your average temperatures, I would have thought your winters are the concern, not your summers.
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